Playing It By Ear
by Aiko Isari
Summary: 02/Xros Wars. Hunters AU She is silver. She is a flower born in a world of darkness by the light. And she is the only one who can help find the answers the Child of Light is looking for.
1. Chapter 1: Down By the Sea

_**A/N:** _Hello! I know, I'm insane, but the deadline is a month away and if I don't post it today, I won't do it ever. This is for the random!AU contest, and I was given the animal transformation AU. I really hope I've interpreted this thing in an interesting way.

Spoilers for the endings of both 02 and the Hunters arc, though they aren't all immediate.

**Warnings:** blood, death, coarse language, violence (T-rated), memory issues, screwing with timelines, and mild romance. Nothing too strong.

Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!

**EDIT 03-15-14:** Letting people know this will be an AU of the Hunters arc, so while spoilers still apply, if you haven't seen it, there will be spoilers as it goes on. Thanks!

* * *

_Chapter One: Down by the Sea_

The grey dreams never ended.

She could recall them more clearly now, monochromatic, filled with the choppy notes of unhappy waves and the sound of a lighthouse creaking through its motions. The black light swung over her head and moved on. Dimly, she remembered that the lighthouse had been destroyed a long time ago. But that didn't matter. This world had brought it back. It seemed like that was only natural for a place like this, such a cold, unchanging place.

Hikari remembered that after the first few times, her feet were left bare, squelching in the sand and picking up rocks that didn't hurt. She was never happy there, never sad either, but instead stayed in that etheral place that dreamers went.

The only difference was: she was sure this place was real, and had been there enough times to know that she wasn't in her bed tonight.

Her brother would be furious.

But for now, that wasn't important.

She walked onward, feet drenched in the wet sand, skin and hair and clothes so many shades of grey and black that she couldn't name them all. Hikari didn't look around. She knew the dilapidated, uneven fence posts would creak in the wind if she didn't watch them and the salty air would crust her normally brown hair if she let it run through or flinched at it ghosting her fingers.

Yagami Hikari, after years of well-kept silences and voices and death, had learned to endure.

So she walked onward, head held as high as she dared, shoulders straight in a bravery she could only emulate in the real, human world. Alone, it was much easier for her to be strong. Because nobody thought she couldn't be. Her feet scraped against a rock, and she couldn't help but look down to see her right foot glistening with blood, the only color she could see. She looked at it with dismay, and kept right on walking, because somehow, there was somewhere she had to be tonight.

"_Come…"_

The denizens had smelled her out already.

"_Save us… save us from the demon…"_

"I can't."

There was no demon to save them from, other than themselves. So, she continued to walk forward, ignoring the whispers that grew into wails, shouting her name until it was the only word in her vocabulary.

"_Light! LIGHT!"_

"_TRAITOR OF DARKNESS!"_

"_Traitor!"_

_I can't betray what I don't belong to._ All she said aloud was "Not tonight."

* * *

The girl walked on until the salty air swallowed her.

Yagami Taichi awoke from his catnap at his desk to find his sister gone.

It wasn't the typical 'your-biology-cramming-should have-been-three-hours-ago' gone, but gone as in vanished, poofed from her curling around her precious two cats like an attempt at angelic floor-napping.

While Miko was too old to do more than paw him and moan out a meow, Tailmon had more the strength to climb up and scratch him awake, hissing in indecipherable inhuman cries as she got to doing when she was so far upset there were no words for it.

"Where?" he asked, and regretted it when she narrowed her eyes, calculating in the way that said it was obvious to a man with _sense_. But Tailmon controlled fury almost as well as Hikari, and it was swallowed and put to the side. He sniffed the air himself, watching the way her nose twitched endlessly, like the scent was a haywire radio signal for a poor antenna.

The smell of the too-distant sea, the scent of rotted fish corpses and overgrown squid.

Takeru had informed him of it, of that smell and the coldness of the air. Beaches were meant to be warm.

But this was not the beach.

Taichi's fingers instantly grabbed the D-Terminal at his desk, barely checking the numbers on his Digital Clock. As crazy early as it was, he knew every single person would be up in arms the second they saw the email.

After all, no one wanted the wrath of Yagami Taichi if they didn't.

"Come on, we gotta be quick and quiet," he said, though his own whisper was pretty much anybody else's (barring a certain gogglehead named Motomiya Daisuke) normal voice. "We might be able to get to her and pull her out."

Tailmon , like she didn't know this. She allowed herself to be picked up, tensing for a few moments, long enough to make Taichi frown when she finally did relax. He wasn't Hikari, and that was fine, but after the time the family had spent together… one would think she would trust him more at least.

Then again, old habits died hard.

And so did pedophile vampires.

"Agumon, hurry up!"

"Ladders are hard…"

He supposed that would be a good point, but his overprotective brother brain didn't really want to hear it, especially with that loud crash as the Digimon landed on his yellow tail. Any other time, he would have rushed over, hiding laughter. But at the moment, he snuffled any snickers for when his sister was not quite possibly in mortal danger again (Why couldn't Hikari just be in danger from _boys_ and _perverts_? She had to get weird, otherworldly creatures fancying her.) and hop into his shoes without tying them, D-Terminals and Digivices shoved into one obviously drooping pocket.

"Come on!" Tailmon hissed, nose to the air like a radar. "The smell's fading, come _on_!"

So not only was his sister probably sleepwalking, but she was sleepwalking in and out of dimensional _planes_.

Koushiro better be able to translate how the hell _that _worked.

As he ran down the stairs, his terminal beeped and there were about six messages saying people were out and about in one form or another. Ken's message in particular sounded horrified and he reflected that telling the resident introvert who had too many sibling losses (yes, he _did_ remember that little timespan of problems) and parental issues that Hikari was poofing in and out of their time-space may have been a bad idea.

_Then again… Demon's there._

"Taichi-san!"

Takeru was already outside of his apartment, face steely and blue eyes as icy as his brother's on a bad afternoon. "What's happening?"

"She's phasing or something," he said, secretly wondering how the other had managed to beat _Daisuke _here, but decided he didn't want to know. "Tailmon's still smelling her on Earth."

"Most of the time," the cat said with a scowl. She leapt down, sniffing again. "I need a better sense of smell…"

"You can use mine," Patamon offered, flying from the comfort of Takeru's hat to the air.

"Her Digivice?" Takeru asked. Taichi held up the pink D-3, which now that he looked had a weak spark emanating from its screen. "How does she keep doing this?" the blond muttered to the air and Taichi swore he detected envy and exasperation in that, but had no time to ponder it. Tailmon had taken off, racing down the way, dodging drunk pedestrians and cheerful college students.

"After her!"

God it was pointless to say that but Taichi sure as hell hoped Takeru could type and run at the same time.

Cause he didn't want to waste his time.

* * *

She was a little bit cold.

Hikari easily shook it off, though it only made the fog cling further. But at this point, there was no going back. Her feet bled too much and toes ached from lack of warmth and bitter winds.

The voices were growing quieter, or maybe they just couldn't speak to her from this distance. She couldn't wonder because while her legs were starting to ache, even in the dream, she still had a long way to go to get there. Wherever "there' just so happened to be.

She could hear no voices now, as her fingers touched the bark of a tree, but she could hear a little voice singing. A little girl-boy voice, too young and sweet to be anything but a lost child. It stirred memories, that voice, memories of a time where she didn't think she was weak or strong.

_I want to whistle again._

But that was a dream as much as this, and her old toy had been scattered to the winds, much like a pink hat.

Forward, yes. Forward, through the grey.

She blinked suddenly and the fog was clear. Around her was nothing but trees, trees and hard earth below her feet, a path twisted over and carved inward by roots. It was painful to the touch, and she suspected there would be blisters to pop after tonight, if she made it from this place alive and well.

Yet… her heart had begun to thrum, excitement replacing the fog with a haze of red and pink and even a little. Perhaps today was the beginning of something beautiful instead of dreadful. The dreams had always been painful, cries for her return to a world she had never belonged in, one humans didn't seem to belong in.

The Dark Ocean didn't really understand that. It was always hungry.

To her ears, the song sounded hungrier. No, it sounded lonely. Lonely and lost… what a sad story.

Though… weren't there many lost children? Why would this one seek her? Her soft hands and weak feet… what could they do? What could she do?

Hikari stopped walking, and closed her eyes to listen. The song remained oft, but it grew louder the more she went to the left. It never broke into words, or became unbearable, but the repetition gave each note a metallic ring.

She noted, with sudden clarity, that this was a lullaby.

As soon as she understood this, something else became clear: she was not alone.

Her eyes traveled around the nearby wood, until they alighted upon someone's form against the back of a tree. White light, the only white that she had ever seen in this place, even on her own skin, was washing over the figure, and it made them hard to see. She took slow steps forward, and the outline of the faraway person became clear. She stopped walking, lifting her hands to her mouth.

_Onii-chan?_

But why would he be here? Had she brought him here?

No, looking closer, it wasn't. This person's hair was mildly neater, and smaller. Thin too, and with ragged breaths that would never leave her brother's lips unless Piemon had thrown him around all over again. And he was dead. She had seen it; he was dead. Or lost. Yet Hikari was relieved. This was not Taichi. Taichi, when she had been home, how long ago that had been, had been all right.

This person was not all right. Red was glistening below them in the white light. Their breathing rushed, harsh, making tiny puffs of air visible from even this distance. Hikari crossed the rest of the distance, trepidation skin that she touched was cold, wet from what could be seawater.

Beneath his injured fingers, the song thrummed from within the shell of a large egg, a very familiar egg to her young hands. The song continued, voice still sweet and now like a siren, a beautiful siren voice.

Looking at the egg, her veins chilled to ice and she pulled her hands away from near the human's own, as if the hands would bring her into that other world, that world with the song.

She did not want to go into another dream. That would be too many to wake up from.

But before she could step away, one hand wrapped around her wrist.

* * *

The park, the park, had to be the park.

He hadn't touched the playground in years.

Taichi was grateful Tailmon went running right past it, racing past the jungle gym where five years ago a girl's dress had hit the dirt, hands scratched by woodchips. He forced himself not to give it a second glance, and was thankful Takeru kept his lips shut tight with anxiety. By that time, Daisuke had caught up with them, Ken at his side. The former was shifting, fiddling with his D-3 and looking around like there was something he could punch that could take this all by storm, that could make this all okay.

Hikari had been missing for god knew how long, and there was no one to protect her, just herself. Just Tailmon's desperate nose searching hard.

"Daisuke," he said, stopping and searching for more air. "Any… luck…?"

The other shook his head, brushing the old goggles down again and moving like the younger Yagami could just magically appear on the nearby swings.

They could only hope.

"Iori couldn't escape the apartment," he said with a scowl. "His mum is furious with you and me for the record. I tried tellin' her but you know, she's as stubborn as he is. Miyako got her siblings all over it, and she owes her sister for taking her place o n the night shift. She said she's running the Digital World now with Sora-san, in case…" Daisuke shrugged, looking forlorn. "You know. In case."

Yeah, Taichi knew all about in case. "Koushiro?"

"Asking Gennai," Takeru said immediately, thumbing text onto the D-Terminal screen in response to something. "With Jyou-san. Onii-san is in the Digital World too. Do you…" He hesitated, and envy warred with sense on the blonde boy's face. "Do you want me to go with him?"

Taichi gave a raised eyebrow. "Do you want to go?" Hell, Taichi himself was only standing still to breathe. Tailmon was bristling near his feet and that fact was enough to urge him onward.

"I want to find HIkari-chan," Takeru said, and he looked at Daisuke. Taichi saw his junior nod back, and never did he feel so proud.

Then Tailmon raced away, and the choice was taken out of their hands as the four boys went hurrying after her.

None of the boys noticed that their surroundings were steadily losing color, and them with it.

All except Ken, who held his partner more tightly against his chest.

* * *

"Le-Let go of me!"

Fear moved before concern for once in her head and she was pulling her wrist away from his feeble grasp. Her bare feet scratched against the dirt and splintered wood and now the pain registered. She wanted to scream but before she could open her mouth, the person's voice croaked.

"Wa...it…"

She did, but only because his voice was so faint, she had to hear him again.

"Puh-lease… wa..it…."

Hikari turned, and all of the fear was washed away with concern and she hurried back over, kneeling and clasping the wet fingers. There was no ambulance, no way to reach one with pocketless pajamas and no phone. "What can I do?" she whispered. This was a human, not a Digimon. Her light would do nothing… wouldn't it?

Not that she even knew if she could use it again.

She looked at the blood, which in her panic, she had noticed had begun to spread. "Where is the wound?" Hikari pulled herself to grasp the egg, the song having grown unusually quiet at her words. her gaze moved to focus on the face of the person, who had opened eyes the color of a stormcloud to look at her. "Hey… please don't give up. Someone will find us...and bring us home. Someone will save us."

He gave a set of rushed, ragged breaths and Hikari wondered if someone would find them fast enough. "Tailmon…" she whispered to the air. "Onii-chan… Takeru-kun… please… I'll be stronger. I will fight and fight and do whatever it takes… but _please_ help us... this person is _dying_…"

She would do anything for strength. Anything that it took now.

The fingers closed around her wrist again, and the grey eyes were resting on her, once sun-tanned skin translucent. "Please…" the boy croaked. "Help… me…"

"I don't have a fir-"

The boy shook his head with enough vehemence as an injured person could. "Help… me… help… them."

The egg on his stomach began to glow red then, and a pink light blossomed from her own fingers.

The eyes on her were soft and sad and his grip pulled her hand to rest on the egg. "I'm… sorry…"

The lights swirled into white and a warmth flooded her skin and bones and out again, her world spiraling to black.

_Help me..._

* * *

Tailmon stopped, ears twitching for a sound they couldn't try to hear. "Tailmon?" The cat hissed to the air, Holy Ring swirling down her tail as it lashed.

The sound was too quiet, like the radio was about to change tracks. She stopped and listened, ear shifting again. "Hikari!"

Something answered her. It was a feeling, not a sound or a scent, but the feeling. The faint feeling that she remembered as telling her not to kill Hikari, or the urge to hug the tiny, weak girl in her claws and accept her soothing touch.

Her Hikari.

The other humans meant nothing. She had to go.

And go she did, through the grey trees and black leaves and seawater-

Oh no.

"STOP!" she screamed. The humans did. "Where have we gone?"

Now they looked. Now they listened and saw and backed away.

"How the hell did we get here?" Takeru whispered, pulling Patamon off of his hatless head. The mammal was tense, paws clenched like fists. Daisuke and Taichi looked only confused, and that was a good thing, she liked to think, good because this meant they might have an easier time in this place.

_...elp...e…_

Tailmon began to run, because there was no point in thinking about anything too deeply when the important person wasn't here.

_H….lp...m…_

"Hikari!"

"Hikari-chan!"

Pink light washed over her fur and for a moment she thought she was going to evolve but instead she just floated as her partner's voice echoed in her soul.

_Help me…_

Then her paws were back on solid, normal-smelling earth, and her human was laying a few feet away with bloodied hands and hollow eyes. On the other side of her head sat a red device and a slowly cracking egg.

The rose eyes rested on her. "Ta...il...mon..."

She was unconscious a second later.


	2. Chapter 2: Up By the Altar

_**A/N:**_ Hey guys! Thanks for your patience. Someone commented to me that the AU wasn't exactly clear in this one. It kind of shows up more and more over time. So don't worry too much! That said, I hope chapter three takes less time. By the way, if you want a feeling on how this story is going (not exact, mind you) please read the manga World Embryo. It's a really great series as it is but it is also one of the things I read before I came up with this story. Enjoy and please read and review! I want to hear from you guys!**  
**

* * *

_Chapter Two: Up by the Altar_

_She was small, floating at the edge of a slowly forming space. The eyes she was looking through were blurry, unfocused blobs of color fading in and out. She thought she knew what they were if she squinted, but she didn't want to squint, she wanted to see. _

_Someone else wanted to see too, and their hand on her head tightened its grip. She opened her mouth to make a noise but something dug into her neck and silenced her. She tried to jerk away but the hand, yes it was a hand, she recognized the roughness, someone she knew, who had callused hands from hard work. Was she fidgeting too much? Was that why his hand was there?_

_Whatever the reason, she wasn't sure she liked it very much. His hands were cold, and she couldn't move to see his face. (Her mind -memories?- told her it was a man.) There was no other pain, just staring, staring at a void that might have had a shape, maybe a voice._

_But the voice wasn't loud enough for her to hear and her own words were being swallowed in a rush of liquid up her mouth. _

_Maybe she was drowning, and the hand wasn't a hand at all._

_Something cold and slimy touched her skin, and she did cry out now, the fear screaming out in her heart as blood rose in her mouth._

Where am I?

...

_'In the aftermath of a great war, a parasite rose from the Digital Sea. It took its fellows into its many arms and played many songs. But what it was unaware of was its own loneliness, merely the gaping, hollow void that its stomach was. Desperate for the void to be filled, it began to devour. Like greed, it fed until it was no longer satisfied by the dead, but with the time of the living...'_

"Uh, ya know," a hoarse voice interrupted. "Not that that speech ain' pretty for the archives or nothin'... but Wisemon, how does that help _anything _for right now?"

The librarian smiled with his invisible mouth. "Why, Shoutmon, are you doubting me? Your dear friend?"

"You've been blabbering on for three hours," grumbled the other voice. "And I don't see how this is really gettin' us any closer to understandin' that nonsense we wen' through."

"Patience is a virtue you still lack, my King," Wisemon said, now smirking.

From the wooden chair, the dragon waved an arm in mild amusement. "Had enough patience to not kill you yet, didn't I?"

"And how long is that going to last?" Wisemon said with a dry chuckle.

Shoutmon shrugged. "Until we find Taiki," he said simply, crossing his scarred arms. "I can't give up until then. None of us can."

Wisemon sighed, placing the next book back on the shelf. "It's been a _year_, my King."

"What's your point?" The red dragon pulled himself off of the chair. "If you say _give up, _I'm gonna punch the crap out of you. I really will. He didn't give up on us, and there are still people waitin' for him. I ain't gonna stop looking just like that." He sighed, heading towards the exit of the room. "I just _can't_."

Wisemon watched him go and then paused. "I'll see what I can do about that portal to the human world then?"

"You'd better!" the dragon shouted, heading down the hallway.

It was a castle where the walls were too high and everything was too grand, but a king needed a castle and that was what Shoutmon was: a King.

Funny how being at this place left a foul taste in his mouth, like biting into a lemon

"Derryaaahh!"

Shoutmon sighed. He could not even get back to his quarters without a poorly done ambush. He casually stepped to the side as a blue blur went slamming into his floor. He grimaced at the small crater and shook his head. "Oi, Gumdramon! Do you mind not always breaking tile whenever you fail at smacking me around?"

"You aren't supposed to dodge my hits, Your Majesty!" The blue dragon sat up slowly, brushing itself off as its large, hammer tail shrank down to its normal size. It gave him a mocking smirk. "Unless you're scared to take it!"

Shoutmon raised an eyebrow and with a swish of one three-fingered hand, summoned his mic and slammed it into the smaller dragon's chest, knocking him across the hall. "Well," he drawled. "Considering I can easily do _that_, guess we know how accurate that statement was, don't we?"

"Why you-" Gumdramon threw himself forward, only to miss Shoutmon again. "Quit dodging, Your Majesty!"

Shoutmon snorted. "Why the hell would I do that? You make enough noise to wake humans through dimensions. If I couldn't dodge that, I might as well hand over the crown and be done with it." He banished his weapon. "Train up some more before you try that one again."

"Then you train me!" Gumdramon was back up again. He really could admire the kid's enthusiasm when he wasn't bashing down Shoutmon's door at the wrong hours or pissing him off at inopportune moments. "You're the king! I could get stronger easily if you did!"

Shoutmon shook his head, as he always did. "Strength ain't something you just get magically, you moron. It's something you earn, something you pour yourself into. If you just have it, you're real weak and it won't last. I've told you this-"

Gumdramon scowled. "Yeah, a hundred times! I'm still stronger than all of those punks outside the walls! And you're letting them get away with thieving and murder and all kinds of stuff while I'm a good guy and I'm stuck here!"

_Yeah, a real great guy. _Shoutmon snorted. "Awful hypocritical of a guy whose best friend is a thief!" At Gumdramon's grimace, he laughed. "What, you thought I didn't know? You guys make more noise than one of my screams. Don't joke around." He started to head back where he was originally going. "Someone like you complaining about injustice with your happy ending…" he rolled his eyes. "How annoyin'."

Taiki would be sheepish and nice about it, being able to calm down some fiery nutjob like Gumdramon. He'd empathize, understand, all of that.

Shoutmon was a good guy, he knew that, but he was also a hothead. And seeing hotheads do stupid things for no reason _really _pissed him off.

"Damn it, Taiki…" he muttered. "I need some sanity like hell. Where did you _go_, man?"

The walls never answered, and he never heard a single song.

It was annoying. Why couldn't humans make a melody too?

...

Fuzz.

A weight on her chest. Heavy. Soft. Warm.

Soft noises a few feet away. Her fingers twitched over scratchy,stiff material. A thin sheet, perhaps? She moved her fingers again and they stuck, as though covered with syrup. Syrup that smelled like metal. That was not syrup.

That was blood.

Why did she have blood on her hands?

She clenched her hand and her fingers stuck together for a moment. She quickly unfurled them, but the feeling didn't fade.

"Hikari!"

"Hikari-chan!"

So much noise. Was it her name they were saying? Could they stop being so loud about it? Her head was suddenly splitting, a shiver in its center making her imagine bile in her mouth and her teeth glued shut. A pressure was on her heart, not the warm presence of before, but a great, deep weight like the bottom of the sea.

The bottom of a dark sea.

Was she still in that Ocean?

The very thought tore her mouth open in a cry of pain and she rolled onto her side. The pressure lessened and the weight fell with a surprised yelp. Her eyes opened, vision blurry as she saw grey and white then a rush of brown.

"Hikari, stop!" You're all so noisy. What do you want? The anger in her own heart puzzled her but also made her sleepy. She wanted to sleep again. But where would she go if she slept? Where was she right now?

"_You're safe right now."_

She didn't know the voice, or even where it was coming from, but relief rushed at the sound of it. She didn't want to think of the important details of why there was one, but she did want to think about breathing, So she focused on that, exhaling heavily with her eyes closed. The panic began to fade as her heartbeat slowed from rapid hammering to slow downbeats. Hikari only slit her eyes open then, and she came face to face with a white cat.

For a moment, her heart almost shrieked with alarm, but then it relaxed. It was Tailmon. Yes, she knew Tailmon. Tailmon was her partner, Yes… but why had she forgotten that?

"_My fault. Sorry." _

The voice again. It wasn't very expressive, or maybe it was just as tired as she felt now that the adrenaline had worn off. For some reason, like a song that never got tiresome, it seemed like the latter. She did not quite care why, choosing to open her eyes and allow the world to come into focus.

She glimpsed muddy blurs of color and heard voices try to come into focus.

They were saying her name. They were calling for her. Yes, that must have been it. But it should be much easier to hear and see them. So why couldn't she?

"_I did something reckless. And I needed you to help me do it. This is the effects kicking in, I guess."_

Beneath the explanation was an apology, jumbled and confused and maybe a bit frightened. Was instinct a driving force in whatever she had done?

"It's okay," she said, and shifted when she realized she had been speaking aloud. The voices suddenly began to clear, no longer simple noises like rain falling into puddles, but words again. Her name, her purpose, her life.

Well, that, and the sound of something cracking.

For some reason, she rolled to face it, and her vision cleared to look at a large egg, about the size of her torso.

_A DigiEgg, _her mind recognized, and the voice let out a faint whistle.

"_Is that what this is called?"_

She gave a mental assent and her vision sharpened fully, giving her a small bit of dizziness in return. As soon as she could see, Hikari felt pain, a ceaseless throb that started from her chest and expanded through her hands, like she was just a giant bruise with eyes. She clenched her teeth in pain for a moment, looking at the egg. Its white and green shell was cracked, like a fault line in the earth. The crack glowed a gentle red.

"Hikari?"

She couldn't really lift her head but she blinked in acknowledgement. She knew that voice, now if her memories weren't so scrambled, she could know who it was. The speaker dropped over onto the side she was rolled onto, staring at her with too-big blue eyes. "Nnh… Tail-mon?"

The creature let out a sigh of relief. No, not creature, cat. What was the matter with her?

"_Your memories are going to be scrambled for a little while. I'm sorry about that. Mine are the same way."_

_What happened?_

She didn't get an answer.

…

Taichi watched his sister sit up gingerly, each minute movement making her cringe a little. Anger and protectiveness boiled up in his pores but he kept himself as quiet he could because the look on her face was adult in intensity, in focus. He knew Takeru would recognize it and hurt if he saw it but that was why he had made sure he and Daisuke were out of the room, calling friends and making sure everyone was up-to-date.

He raised a hand, stopping Ken from leaving the room and either getting the others or the nurse. Neither would end well. She still looked, despite her clear intent to wake up, disjointed, like sneezing wrong would send her back into that panicked dream daze again. Ken sat back, frowning deeply and twitching like a slightly startled rabbit. Taichi still kept his mouth shut as Hikari's brain worked slowly on the concept of Tailmon. Gingerly, she offered trembling arms to the cat and, with the same timid concern, the cat went to her lap and curled there.

Only when Hikari had begun to stroke her partner's back and Tailmon was purring her relief did Taichi open his mouth. "How are you feeling?"

The question evoked a jerky movement of the head, and it took a moment to process properly until Hikari looked up at him, inquisitive in her wide, almost too-bright eyes. Did she not know who he was? Had she not known who _Tailmon _was? She worked her mouth for one slow minute before she croaked out. "Horrible."

"Can you hold a paper cup?" The question would have sounded absurd if it weren't for the fact that his sister actually didn't look _sure_, and the last time she hadn't been able to hold paper was a time he didn't like to think about.

But she nodded, a bit more of a bob than a straight nod, and drank almost greedily. He looked away pointedly, only for his eyes to catch her bandaged bare feet that she had come in with blistery and red, much like her hands, which were also wrapped.

She drained the tiny cup too fast and finally, Taichi gestured for Ken to get the nurse, sitting back down in the plastic chair.

Hikari licked her lips and stared at him with confusion. "You're in the hospital," he finally said. "You sleepwalked out of our apartment halfway back to Hikarigaoka. If you hadn't been caught up in the park, you might have made it out of the city by sunrise." Taichi didn't mention the fact that most of that walk had been in another dimension but somehow, Hikari seemed to know that anyway. Her expression seemed to lose focus again.

"Someone else called me there," she said in a small voice. It was full of shame, like she could just fight off any evil voice that called her name as persistently as the Dark Ocean did and simply hadn't. Tailmon tensed in her lap as she spoke, but calmed at the gentle touch at her ears. "They called for my help."

"Didn't that Ocean do the same thing?" Taichi asked, recalling what Takeru had explained to him months before, if vaguely.

Hikari shook her head slowly, eyes beginning to scan the room. Unconsciously, Taichi's eyes flitted to the other side of the room, by the door. She didn't notice this time. "This was similar at first… but the Ocean doesn't sing."

That was all she could say, because the nurse arrived and began to examine her, slow and gentle. Taichi noticed Hikari flinch from the man's touch every so often, and he hoped it was from pain. Takeru and Daisuke were peering through the room window and only when the man stood and admonished them to let her rest and wait for their parents did the two boys come in. Takeru gently cradled the egg, like was afraid it was

Hikari's eyes saw the egg and seemed to spark.

"That was it," she said softly. "That was where the song came from."

Takeru glanced at Taichi, who visibly frowned. He didn't want to just give it back to her, if it had caused her to end up like this…

But Hikari reached out to it, eyes bright and warm. "Please…" she breathed.

Takeru shook his head and her hands dropped, crestfallen. She just stared at Tailmon for a few moments, smoothing down her fur and licking her lips.

Then there was a loud crack from his arms and her eyes shot up as the egg cracked again. It shook and shook, floating in the air to shine a blinding light.

When the light vanished, a naked toddler was sitting up at Hikari's bandaged feet, mess of silver hair over almost-chalky skin.

"Neh!" exclaimed the toddler, only to fall forwards onto hands and knees. "Bweh?"

In Hikari's mind, the voice gave a sigh of relief. "_Thank god she's okay."_


End file.
